Trojan War - (Greek mythology) a great war fought between Greece and Troy; the Greeks sailed to Troy to recover Helen of Troy, the beautiful wife of Menelaus who had been abducted by Paris; after ten years the Greeks (via the Trojan Horse) achieved final victory and burned Troy to the ground; "the story of the Trojan War is told in Homer's Iliad"

Augean stables - (Greek mythology) the extremely dirty stables that were finally cleaned by Hercules who diverted two rivers through them

Pandora's box - (Greek mythology) a box that Zeus gave to Pandora with instructions that she not open it; she gave in to her curiosity and opened it; all the miseries and evils flew out to afflict mankind

Charybdis - (Greek mythology) a ship-devouring whirlpool lying on the other side of a narrow strait from Scylla

classical mythology - the system of mythology of the Greeks and Romans together; much of Roman mythology (especially the gods) was borrowed from the Greeks

Colchis - (Greek mythology) a region on the Black Sea to the south of the Caucasus that was the site of an ancient country where (according to Greek mythology) Jason sought the Golden Fleece

Acheron, River Acheron - (Greek mythology) a river in Hades across which the souls of the dead were carried by Charon

Cocytus, River Cocytus - (Greek mythology) a river in Hades that was said to be a tributary of the Acheron

Lethe, River Lethe - (Greek mythology) a river in Hades; the souls of the dead had to drink from it, which made them forget all they had done and suffered when they were alive

Liakoura, Mount Parnassus, Parnassus - (Greek mythology) a mountain in central Greece where (according to Greek mythology) the Muses lived; known as the mythological home of music and poetry; "Liakoura is the modern name of Mount Parnassus"

River Styx, Styx - (Greek mythology) a river in Hades across which Charon carried dead souls

Augeas - (Greek mythology) the mythical Greek king who for 30 years did not clean his stables which contained his vast herd of cattle

Alcyone, Halcyon - (Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher

Demogorgon - (Greek mythology) a mysterious and terrifying deity of the underworld

Argus - (Greek mythology) a giant with 100 eyes; was guardian of the heifer Io and was slain by Hermes

Cadmus - (Greek mythology) the brother of Europa and traditional founder of Thebes in Boeotia

Calypso - (Greek mythology) the sea nymph who detained Odysseus for seven years

sea nymph - (Greek mythology) a water nymph who was the daughter of Oceanus or Nereus

Cyclops - (Greek mythology) one of a race of giants having a single eye in the middle of their forehead

Scylla - (Greek mythology) a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster who lived on one side of a narrow strait; drowned and devoured sailors who tried to escape Charybdis (a whirlpool) on the other side of the strait

Stentor - the mythical Greek warrior with an unusually loud voice who died after losing a shouting contest with Hermes

Cerberus, hellhound - (Greek mythology) the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to Hades; son of Typhon

Charon - (Greek mythology) the ferryman who brought the souls of the dead across the river Styx or the river Acheron to Hades

Chimaera, Chimera - (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon

Neither can we be absolutely certain that, Socrates himself taught the immortality of the soul, which is unknown to his disciple Glaucon in the Republic; nor is there any reason to suppose that he used myths or revelations of another world as a vehicle of instruction, or that he would have banished poetry or have denounced the Greek mythology.

Perhaps he was the old Germanic god Beowa, and his exploits originally allegories, like some of those in the Greek mythology, of his services to man; he may, for instance, first have been the sun, driving away the mists and cold of winter and of the swamps, hostile forces personified in Grendel and his mother.

Whether Orpheus ever lived other than in Greek mythology, his fame as a musician, a poet, a prophet, and the man who tried to bring his wife Eurydice back from Hades has flourished through European civilisation's love of Classical mythology long after other gods and goddesses have passed their sell-by date.

This collection of twenty eight articles on interpreting Greco-Roman culture presents a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to examining Greek mythology within the broader context of the intellectual and cultural development of the ancient world and provides an in depth discussion of the influence of traditional stories on the development of a shared historical culture.

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